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To The Shores Of Iwo Jima (1945)

An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary, this 20 minute Technicolor production unfolds with graphic energy the nearly month long battle for Iwo Jima, a volcanic island lying 700 miles southeast of Japan, in which 20000 Japanese and nearly 7000 American fighting men were killed, a struggle eternalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising a giant U.S. flag atop 550 foot high Mt. Suribachi, cinematically captured here in this well-edited (by Warner Bros.) effort.

We just did a PME visit to Iwo To as it's now called. I had my Marines watch this documentary which gives them some perspective on what they walked and saw. Looking at the landing beaches from Suribachi is just awe inspiring and still smelling the sulfur. If you watch this documentary carefully it has many interesting topics - Montford Point Marine acting as stretcher bearer, the difficulty of moving in the soft volcanic sand, wood planking on sides of tanks to repel magnetic mines (cheaper than zimmerit), importance of flame throwers/tanks, CAS, Naval Gunfire, corpsmen, LOGISTICS, small unit leadership, etc. There is only a small marker now where the American cemetery once stood (this film shows how large it once was). The B-29 crews that were able to land there and the P-51 escort basing.

Just an incredible experience. unfortunately only had a limited window to be there and the Japanese do not allow any cave exploring but they did have a collection of artifacts on display.

Just an incredible experience. unfortunately only had a limited window to be there and the Japanese do not allow any cave exploring but they did have a collection of artifacts on display.

Going off memory, I recall one of my uncles saying he did some R&R on Iwo during his Korean war time. Said a lot of guys were exploring for whatever. This memory is a bit sketchy as I last talked to him in 1993. He has passed on. 1952-3 would have been the time frame.

Maybe someone can chime in, I'm trying like hell to recall his unit but am quite immersed in work right now.